Watsonville

Still, many residents remain on edge about potential long-term impacts on the nearby communities of Watsonville, Castroville, Salinas and the ecologically sensitive Elkhorn Slough estuary.

Exacerbating those concerns is a new battery storage site proposed in an unincorporated part of Santa Cruz County near Watsonville.

According to a new state report, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, or CDPR, collected weekly air samples last year in Oxnard, Santa Maria, Shafter and Watsonville, and found pesticides in nearly 80% of the samples.

After Chavez Rodriguez graduated from Tehachapi High School, she organized strawberry pickers in Watsonville during breaks while she attended UC Berkeley.

The saga unfolded Saturday night when a man identified by police as Joshua Gonzalez showed up outside the Watsonville Police Department with his 3-year-old daughter, authorities wrote in a Facebook post.